Successful state building in Somaliland has raised the stakes of holding – and losing – power. While Somaliland has remained largely committed to democratic government, recurrent political crises and delayed elections risk postponing much needed internal debate.

It’s taken the USA a long time to get over the humiliation of Black Hawk Down. With his surprise visit to Mogadishu, US Secretary of State John Kerry finally closed that ignominious chapter, and announced that Somalia would be seeing a lot more American involvement from now on.

Weapons are pouring out of Africa's most oil-rich country while extremist fighters tumble in. The toxic legacy of Gaddafi’s divisive and authoritarian regime, which pitted Libya’s diverse factions against one another, has plagued the prospects for any central authority gaining widespread legitimacy in the war-torn country.

The destruction of Boko Haram will not necessarily lead to a more peaceful and stable Nigeria. The extremist group rose out of a toxic brew of corruption, religion, politics and ethno-regionalism, in which struggles over Nigeria’s vast oil revenues have played out for decades.

Outsiders are perplexed over the rhetorical commitment of Pakistani leaders to ‘fight terrorism of all shades’ and lofty claims on strategies to deal with them. The country needs friends and supporters on world stage. But its interior minister is wasting no opportunity to offend others, the latest being Bangladesh.

In 2013, Mohamed, a 22-year old Somali, was making a living washing cars in Saudi Arabia. Late that year, due to increasing government pressure on employers of undocumented workers, he was fired. In December, after several weeks without a job, Mohamed handed himself over to the police. He spent the next 57 days detained in appalling conditions. “In the …